Successful Farming Radio

Farmers, ranchers and scientists will be working together to come up with farm-level practices to address climate change and chip away at greenhouse gas emissions. Allison Thomson is the Ag Mission program director for the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research [1]. Her goal is to make agriculture net-negative for greenhouse gas emissions [2]. Thomson says for the science to be meaningful it has to involve the farmers and ranchers who use that information.   "We’ll involve them not just as study subjects but involve them in the beginning on helping to design the research. Understanding from the start, what are their questions? We know a lot of these climate smart practices are not new ideas, things like cover crops or reducing tillage," says Thomson. "And farmers are aware that these strategies can be helpful. So, the challenge is really understanding from the farmers at the beginning what is the barrier to doing that? There are a lot of different things that could limit the farmer or rancher’s ability to take up some of these practices." Ag data is fragmented and kind of all-over the place so they will be creating an “integration hub” website to connect farmers with scientists. She says the goal is to organize all that informational data.    "We are intending to invest in developing an infrastructure for that that all of the scientists, all of the Extensions, all of the tool developers can use to accelerate their efforts and be able to really dig in and understand what is known, and use that to inform their tool development, which will be what’s used directly by the farmers," she explains. "So, think of it as instead of creating a new boat that everybody has to use, we want to lift all the boats that are already there, and help farmers get the information through the channels they already get their information from." Thomson says they hope to have the infrastructure ready to go in a couple of years.    [1] https://foundationfar.org/about/ [2] https://agmission.org/

The perfect soil pH [1] for growing field crops ranges between 6.2 and 6.8. If you get much above 7.3, the soil pH is considered high. This causes a reduction in nutrient availability and makes plants more sensitivity to certain herbicides -  either the chemicals work too well, or not at all.  Robert Hoeft is an emeritus professor of soil fertility at the University of Illinois. He says particularly in soybeans, the two nutrients that are affected the most by high pH are iron and manganese. "Both of them have very similar symptoms. They both have what we call “interveinal chlorosis”. The veins stay green, in between the veins they get chlorotic or yellowed. With iron, the chlorotic area often times will go to a white, and the leaves will just look like they’re bleaching out," says Hoeft. "On manganese instead of getting white, they tend to get a rusty appearance." He says if you’re east of the Mississippi river, you’re likely to have a manganese deficiency.  West of the river, it’s usually iron that’s lacking.  It isn’t practical to correct a high pH problem in the soil itself, so foliar sprays are needed.   "If it’s manganese deficiency you can spray them, they’ll green up," he says. "If it’s iron deficiency, it’s more difficult to correct the problem with a foliar spray. With iron, you’re better off selecting the varieties that are more resistant to the problem." Hoeft says don’t spray the entire field, just spray the affected areas. If other parts of the field aren’t showing symptoms, it’s not a problem.   [1] http://extension.cropsciences.illinois.edu/handbook/pdfs/chapter08.pdf

Corn growers should be out scouting their fields for corn rootworm [1]. Newly hatched larvae feed primarily on root hairs and outer root tissue. As larvae grow and their food requirements increase, they burrow into the roots to feed. This interferes with water and nutrient uptake, makes the plant unstable, and cuts down on yield. Anthony Ohmes is an Extension agronomy specialist at the University of Missouri [2]. He says one of the signs of rootworm activity is root tips that appear brown, tunneled into, and chewed back to the base of the plant. "One root average per plant pruned back to 1.5 inches of a stalk, or an entire node of roots destroyed. Somewhere in that range is where economic loss is going to be potentially possible," says Ohmes. "One of the things you’d see is that root pruning, and then the next obvious symptom would be if there’s a wind occurring after excessive root pruning, you’ll get some plants that lay over, then you’ll get this goose-necking where the plant’s trying to upright itself again." Scouting doesn’t end with the larvae. In late July and August, the adult beetles will show up on the corn plant. "The beetles feed on silks, they’re typically not an economic threat because we’ve already got pollination occurred, and so silk pruning’s not a big deal at that time frame," he says. "But, if we get an average of about one beetle per plant in that time frame, then that would probably be enough because the beetles just fall back to the ground and deposit the eggs." The first management strategy is rotating out of corn. If you have continuous corn, the only option is to use Bt or insecticide treatments. [1] https://www.agriculture.com/crops/corn/how-to-beat-corn-rootworm-in-2021 [2] https://extension2.missouri.edu/m166

Your neighbor could be buying more land every year to farm, but bigger doesn’t always mean better. Greg Ibendahl is an associate professor of ag economics at Kansas State University. He and another researcher reviewed 10-years of data from the Kansas Farm Management Association [1] to develop a ranking of several hundred farms [2] based on their economic performance and how much they grew over those ten years. He says instead of just looking at the overall farm income, they looked at net farm income per-acre. They also considered investment in machinery, machinery operation and maintenance costs, and the allocation of acres to given crops. A key in this study - the higher your debt level was, the lower you tended to rank. "So, our overall conclusion from this was that if you’re a farmer, it’s probably better to concentrate on keeping your debt level down as opposed to making sure you get real big and then just expand for the sake of expansion because you can make a go of it as a smaller size farm," advises Ibendahl. He says bigger farms may be more efficient because they have the ability to buy inputs at lower prices and may have better marketing opportunities. But there are strategies for smaller operations too. "You can do that through maybe buying inputs with your neighbors as one possibility, or maybe using futures markets possibly to help with the marketing side, and certainly renting equipment or custom harvesting operations is a way to kind of get around some of the economies you would see from buying bigger equipment. So, there are a lot of strategies. If you’re a 500-acre farm you can make a go of it with that size," he says. "Again, I think to me, the debt level is probably more important than anything than what the farm size actually is." [1] https://agmanager.info/ [2] https://agmanager.info/finance-business-planning/research-papers-and-presentations/top-farms-and-effect-farm-size

If you see excess water pooling in a field where it shouldn’t be, a tile may not be draining to its full capacity. It doesn’t happen often, but the roots of cover crops, corn, and even trees along a fence line can get inside the tiles and clog them up [1]. Eileen Kladivko is an agronomy professor at Purdue University. She says they’ve had more reports of the problem lately, and the most common “tiles” these days are plastic perforated drain tubes. "Within the plastic tile, there are different kinds of openings. I mean, some of them are holes, some of them are slits, some of them are very tiny, narrow slits," says Kladivko. "And those are usually designed for different types of soils so that you don’t get soil particles in there. But, we are just kind of wondering whether there might be some of those that would be more prone for roots to enter than others." Kladivko says another cause could be dead roots washing down the pipe and accumulating in lateral junctions that fit inside the main drain with internal quick couplers. Over time, you’ve got a log-jam-style clog. "One possible solution is to not use those quick couplers, but to use the external couplers, so you don’t have anything in there that would tend to catch roots or anything else," she says. Kladivko says they need more reports from farmers to help researchers determine why plant roots are getting into tile lines, and specifically how to prevent it. If yours have been clogged by roots, she’d like to hear from you. [1] http://www.agriculture.com/crops/cover-crop-roots-and-sediment-may-be-clogging-tile-lines

Data and technology are mainstream in production agriculture, but some related industries are still playing catch-up. One of those is crop insurance.  Mike Day is the former business head for Rural Community Insurance Services [1]. He says there could be many advantages for farmers who allow precision ag data that’s generated from their machines to help customize their policies for crop coverage [2]. It won’t necessarily lower their premiums, but reporting with electronic data would be a lot easier by saving time and reducing paperwork.    "To populate acreage reports, to tabulate harvested production, and really kind of work the insurance policy from end-to-end from planting to harvest," says Day. "So, it’s a slow uptake but I think there’s more and more interest now and ways to make it simpler for the farmer to get the data they need to get a policy established, and if need be, work through a claim." Young farmers are apt to be tech-savvy, but this is still a relatively new idea in the insurance world. Day says more and more companies are jumping in and he predicts using electronic data will be mainstream in a few years.  "Part of it I think is education and training on how to use it, and that part is having systems that a company can utilize to take that data, clean up the data, use it to populate policy, and issue coverage," he says. "But it’s on-going, it’s hard work to really get to where we would like it to be, but we’re making progress." As insurance innovations continue, real-time data will help fine-tune crop insurance products and coverage.    [1] https://www.rcis.com/Pages/home.aspx [2] https://usfarmersandranchers.org/stories/economic-sustainability/the-power-of-farm-data-to-enhance-lending-and-crop-insurance-services/

A common topic of debate among farmers is when to cut hay. Should you do it in the morning or afternoon [1]? When you look at plant physiology, forages create carbohydrates during the daylight hours through photosynthesis. It’s at a higher rate than the plant needs for growth and maintenance during the day so sugar content is generally higher at dusk. However, the difference in sugar content between late evening and early morning is minor. Dennis Hancock is a state Extension forage specialist at the University of Georgia [2]. He says your climate is the key factor in timing when to cut hay. "Because if you are able to cut without any risk of rain, then the best time to cut would be in the evening," says Hancock. "Particularly in an arid climate where even overnight, even though the temperatures are not as high, the relative humidity is low, and so the moisture gradient pulls moisture out of the crop even overnight." In humid parts of the country where rain is more frequent, Hancock recommends cutting hay in the morning. But he says the weather trumps any strategy for time-of-day cutting because the greatest risk to hay curing and forage quality is rain damage. "You wake up one morning and the weather forecast has three days of good drying conditions and 30%-40% chance in day 4 or 5, it’s better to go ahead and take full advantage of those three days that you know you’ve got really good drying conditions," he says. "The weatherman has pretty good skill at predicting days 1-3, but after about day 3 or so, their skill goes down." [1] https://hayandforage.com/article-1455-is-morning-or-afternoon-cutting-best-.html [2] https://georgiaforages.caes.uga.edu/

A well that’s been inundated with floodwater could end up with debris, bacteria, and other contaminants in your drinking water. It has to be cleaned out and tested [1]before it’s safe for humans and animals to use. Because wells are complicated, you’ll need to get ahold of a licensed water well contractor to do any servicing of a flooded well. Michael Schnieders is a hydro-geologist with Water Systems Engineering [2] in Ottawa, Kansas. He says one of the first steps is to purge the well. "The necessary time required to pump the well is dependent on the well size and design, the aquifer and the flood water depth and quality. As few as three-hours, and as many as 24-hours may be needed," he says. "It’s recommended you purge the well until visual turbidity is gone. Visual turbidity is the means of evaluating a sample visually against an opaque background for signs of contamination or sediment." Take the well pump apart to clean it separately. Then, remove any sediment or debris that has collected in the lowest extension of the well. Schnieders says the chemicals used for disinfection should be approved for potable water and selected based on suspected contaminants and the materials used in the well’s construction. "Key steps in the process include using the correct dosage, targeting the entire well system with an adequate treatment volume, adjusting the pH if you live in a hard water or alkaline water area, and allowing sufficient contact time for the solution," he says. All associated piping and pumping equipment should also be disinfected with the solution. Before you take even a sip of water from the well, have it tested for total coliform bacteria. [1] https://wellowner.org/water-quality/flood/ [2] http://www.h2osystems.com

Hail storms are common in many areas of the country and crop damage ranges from moderate to a total loss. The impact of hail on plant tissue [1] depends on the size of the hailstones, duration of the storm, and the growth stage of the plants. Mark Licht is an Extension cropping systems specialist at Iowa State University. He says hail storms are an emotional event and you will be tempted to run out to your fields and assess the damage right after it happens. But his advice is to wait. "We don’t truly know how the plant’s going to recover until we start seeing that plant recover," says Licht. "And so, waiting 5-10 days is really quite beneficial because then we truly see how much loss there is, how that plant’s going to recover, if we’ve lost the growing point, things like that." When you do go out, Licht says the first thing he recommends is to identify the worst affected areas, the least affected areas, and do a stand assessment. "How many plants do we have out there, how many viable plants do we have out there? And that really is quite useful because it starts to tell us what is our yield potential with the current stand that we have, at the current level of defoliation," he says. "When we do those stand assessments, it’s identifying how much leaf area we lost and in the case of soybeans, how many nodes did we lose, did we lose that apical meristem or not?" At this point you will need to calculate the profitability of the existing stand versus the costs of replanting. As we get further into the growing season, the risk of yield loss after replanting is much higher due to late maturity and fall frost. [1] https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/blog/mark-licht/hail-deciding-keep-stand-or-making-other-plans

Solving problems with your farming operation and noting where you can make improvements is a whole lot easier when you can retrieve data from a precision ag product [1]. You want a system that ensures every pass across the field is documented and integrated into the equipment. You don’t have to think about it, it just happens without a lot of fuss and effort. Kyle Plattner is the senior product manager for mobile and monitoring at John Deere [2]. He says to have your goals in mind when choosing a platform, but you can’t foresee everything you’re going to want to do with the data. "I think that there is all sorts of analysis and things that we’re able to extract value out of data that you find out long after you’ve been collecting it. And so, I think even before you identify all the goals you could possibly have with collecting data, step one is to just make sure you’re getting it," says Plattner. "And that just starts with choosing the right player, the right platform." The learning curve when adopting a digital strategy can be steep for farmers. Do your research and start with the tools you’re comfortable with. It can be as simple as your phone. "Everybody uses apps, so it’s a low barrier of entry. That’s a great place to get started with your data. Make sure you have a platform that is available right on the mobile phone that you carry around every day," he says. "And generally, it’ll grow with you. As you become more comfortable with more advanced tools, the opportunity is there to go deeper and deeper and sit down at a desktop and do a really in-depth analysis. So, I would say the platforms will continue to grow and mature, and as you continue to grow more comfortable, you can go deeper with the tool sets that are made available."  Once you’ve chosen a platform to invest in, make sure it will work with your existing equipment for data compatibility and file formats.   [1] https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/fabe-556 [2] https://www.deere.com/en/technology-products/precision-ag-technology/data-management/

If you inherit farm ground there are a lot of decisions to make [1]. Will you keep it and farm it yourself, keep it and let the current tenants continue to farm, keep it and have somebody else farm it, or do you sell it? Another question that must be answered is how do you own the land? Is it yours outright, joint ownership with brothers and sisters, or through a partnership? Allan Vyhnalek is a succession and transition extension educator [2] at the University of Nebraska. He says the decision will also have tax consequences, so consult with a tax attorney and accountant to understand the most up-to-date legal and tax implications of your inheritance. "Generally, when parents pass away it goes to the next generation and they’ll get the increase in basis, which means you wouldn’t have a capital gains issue if you sell it now," says Vyhnalek. "If you choose to keep it and let’s say the value goes up, because land tends to increase in value over a period of time, your basis becomes whatever it is at the time of your parents’ passing and then 10,15, 20 years later it’s worth more, and then you’ll have to pay the capital gains on the difference if you decide to sell it." He says when siblings or other family members are included in the land inheritance, don’t assume everyone will be happy and feel like they were treated fairly. Have a conversation with them on how the decisions made could affect your relationship going forward.  "Those things, in my view, should be discussed before we start discussing what’s going to happen to that farm ground. Then, we start having a conversation with those family members saying, ok, what’s your objective? Find out everybody’s goal, find out everybody’s objective, find out what everybody thinks ought to happen," he says. "Then you can just kind of work out that whole negotiation from there as far as whether you’re going to keep it or whether you’re going to sell." [1] https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c4-07.html [2] https://agecon.unl.edu/farm-succession

After eating hay all winter, the cattle will be giddy the first time you turn them out on pasture. They’ll suck down the lush, green forage like it’s their last meal. Unfortunately, it might be. A condition called “bloat” [1] happens when gas develops from eating high-protein forages. Foam becomes trapped inside the rumen, the rumen swells, and can kill the animal within an hour if not treated. David Fernandez is an extension livestock specialist at the University of Arkansas [2]. He says one of the keys to preventing bloat is to feed animals something fibrous before turning them out on new pasture. "Go ahead and feed them some hay, make sure that they’ve had their morning fill, and then turn them out and let them start grazing on it. Don’t let them have it all at once. You can limit-graze them where you turn them out on the pasture for a little bit and then push them back off of it," says Fernandez. "Just kind of gradually work them onto that over the period of a week or so." An animal that develops bloat will have swelling on the left side of its body. They’ll be obviously uncomfortable, kick at their belly, stomp their feet, and may grind their teeth. Fernandez says if you suspect bloat, tap your fingers on the animal’s left side. It will sound hollow, like a drum. Treat it immediately with a surfactant to break up the surface tension of the foam. "Bloat Guard is one of the products that’s used, basically it’s a nonionic surfactant, and that’s also a detergent. In a pinch you can use Dawn dishwashing liquid. A couple ounces of Dawn dishwashing liquid in maybe a pint of water, get that down into the rumen through a tube," he says. "You have to be careful not to get the fluid down into the lungs but that surfactant will break up the foam, and allow that gas to escape." [1] http://extension.psu.edu/plants/crops/forages/livestock-and-wildlife/dairy/tips-for-preventing-pasture-bloat [2] http://www.uaex.edu/media-resources/news/may2014/05-30-2014-UAPB-Cattle-Bloat.aspx

I grew up down the road from a hog farm. When the wind was out of the south, my dad would say, “smells like they’re making money today.” Farms with livestock stink, that’s the reality of it. But there are things you can do to cut down on the manure odors [1] wafting into your neighbor’s noses. Doug Hamilton is an Extension waste management specialist at Oklahoma State University. He says more than anything else, proper manure storage and general cleanliness will help keep the odors down. "So, one thing I tell people is to clean those pits frequently, at least once a week, and also keep their buildings clean. In a sense, it would be not allowing the bacteria to grow," he says. "Like your slats in your hog building, if they’re covered with manure, the smells are going to leave the building." Trap and hold offensive smells with physical or chemical filters, properly-operated lagoons, or even composting. Living in an area with strong breezes will often dilute the odors that blow from your barn before they reach the neighbor’s. Strategic plantings can also help. "If you could plant trees or something to make a little rougher area right before the wind gets to your buildings, that’s going to help you a little bit," says Hamilton. "Cause some turbulence in the air, and allows the smells to mix with the non-smelly air. That works most of the time, of course the wind doesn’t always blow." On calm nights and early mornings, farmstead odors are carried to low spots in the landscape because the odorants that cause the smell are heavier than air. Hopefully your barns aren’t uphill from the neighbors. [1] https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/strategies-to-control-farmstead-odors.html

Kill the weeds and save the crops all at the same time with the newest advancements in sprayers. Kaylene Ballesteros is John Deere’s product manager of See & Spray technology [1]. She says they’re expanding their targeted spray technology from green-on-brown to green-on-green. See & Spray Ultimate can be used in-season for corn, cotton, and soybeans. Artificial intelligence and machine learning allows for pin-point accuracy for determining what’s a weed and what isn’t. "They take hundreds of thousands of images of weeds and crop at all different stages, all different angles and they teach the computer system ‘this is weed, this is crop’," says Ballesteros. "So, the system knows as it’s going through the field scanning over 2100 square-foot-per-second at a time, it knows this is a crop, don’t spray it. This is a weed, spray it." There is one camera mounted every one meter across the width of the boom. The new system can also help you save on inputs by offering a dual-product chemical solution. "So, what this does, is it allows you to independently flow two chemical mixes, or two tank mixes through the plumbing to the nozzles so two-in-one pass," she says. "It helps to battle herbicide resistance. There are tank mixes that cause antagonism so you can’t get quite as aggressive as you’d want to with one tank. And so, the dual product solution system allows a farmer to get more aggressive with those tank mixes."   [1] https://www.deere.com/en/sprayers/see-spray-ultimate/

Online auctions and dealers are popular places to find a used tractor, but sometimes you’ll find a farmer selling a tractor on his own. If you’re interested in buying and the tractor is one-to-three years old, it’s probably in good condition or at least any issues were taken care of under warranty. Older tractors need closer scrutiny. Dave Mowitz is the executive machinery editor for Successful Farming magazine. He says it’s important that you investigate the tractor’s past.  "Ask how it was used and why they’re selling it. That’s a question that catches a lot of guys is why are you selling it? Is it he’s retiring or he’s just got a bigger tractor and decided to sell it himself, or you may be able to detect if he’s trying to get rid of a problem," says Mowitz. "Then, ask for the service records. If a guy doesn’t have service records on a tractor, I’d be pretty worried. I would want to know how well that’s been taken care of." It’s crucial to do a physical inspection [1]. Hop on the tractor seat and start it. Let it warm up and listen to the engine. "Listen to it run inside the cab because there’s different noises coming into the cab, then get outside, open the hood, and listen to it out there," he recommends. "Does it run evenly with no knocking at full speed, is there a constant sound coming from the stack or are you getting a miss in there? Is the operation ragged? If that’s the case, the injectors and valves could be faulty. Constant black smoke might mean you’ve got a fuel pump problem. Gray smoke may mean you have a crack in the block or there’s some problem where the coolant’s getting in there." If you’re not confident in your own inspection skills, bring a friend or a mechanic along with you.   [1] https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1537&context=extension_curall

Grab a handful of soil and hope that it’s alive. Ninety-percent of the environmental and agronomic functions that we expect the soil to perform are done by the things that live in it. Jon Stika is a former soil health educator for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and authored a book called “A Soil Owner’s Manual: How to Restore and Maintain Soil Health [1].  He says we need to understand what soil is, how it works, and what it needs to be its vibrant, living self [2].  For example, plants and organisms in the soil need each other to survive. There’s no free lunch. "The plants make carbohydrates they feed to the organisms that live in the soil that then turn nutrients, water, or make nutrients in an available form such as nitrogen to the plant. So, the plant isn’t giving them all these sugars for nothing, it expects something in return," says Stika. "They mutually support each other and in the process they actually build the soil aggregates that hold everything together." Stika says he believes the dark side of agriculture such as bankruptcies and suicides is tied to how well the soil is functioning. "If we can restore soil function, these producers can reduce a lot of these input costs, increase their margin of profitability, and remain viable," he says. "If their soil’s degraded and it continues to be degraded and they continue to have to increase inputs just to maintain the same yields, the economics of that just aren’t going to work."  [1] https://www.amazon.com/Soil-Owners-Manual-Restore-Maintain/dp/1530431263 [2] https://www.agriculture.com/crops/soil-health/soil-lives

Sometimes, we have to judge each other’s hair. Especially cattle. Ideally, we want cows to shed their winter coats before mid-June. This makes them more attractive, more productive, and better able to cope with heat stress due to fescue toxicosis. Hair usually sheds off first at the front end and the top of the animal. Eldon Cole is an extension livestock specialist at the University of Missouri [1]. He says the cattle industry has adopted hair scoring ratings [2]that range from one-to-five. "A “1” score is an animal that is completely shed off, they’re very slick, you can’t find any long, dead hair on them. A “2” is going to be about 75% shed off. There will be a little hair on their back end and the lower parts of the quarter. A “3” is about 50-50. A “4” only being 25% shed, and of course a “5” looks like a wooly mammoth," says Cole. Ideally your cattle would score a one. But Cole says if you’re worried about slow shedding, compare that with overall performance. "If you’re looking at a cow, you’ll want to make sure she’s still in the top half of the herd, probably, on reproduction and that she’s raising a good calf year after year," he says. "So, yes, there can be instances where an animal may not totally shed off but still have good performance and you need to kind of blend those two together." [1] https://extension2.missouri.edu/g2014 [2] https://beef-cattle.extension.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2017-1_Hair_shedding_scores_Arial_1.pdf

No matter the size of your operation, having a GPS system when planting, spraying, and other field operations gives you better accuracy and efficiency. You can choose between several levels of accuracy, depending on what your needs are. Morgen Dietrich is the market manager for embedded technology at John Deere [1]. He says the type of GPS receiver needed [2] for your operation depends on the intended use because it determines repeatability and pass-to-pass accuracy. "SF1 is our base signal, and that is pass-to-pass accuracy in 15 minutes within 6”. So, if you would come back to that same place within 15 minutes you should still be within the 6”. Once you’re past that time frame you could be further away," says Dietrich. "Then when we step that up to SF3, that would be 1.2” in 15 minutes but it actually allows repeatability of that 1.2” for a full nine months."  Another option is called RTK – Real Time Kinematic. "And that essentially allows you to come back to the same point year after year with 1” accuracy," he says. "That’s the beauty of RTK and it allows customers to do things more repeatable than would an SF1 or SF3. There are additional costs for RTK. You need to have a radio that essentially helps you triangulate where your signal is coming from."   You also need a display, and the software that enables the system. How easy it is to use is another important factor. Consider how intuitive the menus, buttons, and touch interfaces are and how easy it is to train other operators. [1] https://www.deere.com/common/docs/products/equipment/agricultural_management_solutions/guidance_systems/brochure/en_GB_yy1114823_e.pdf [2] https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/selecting-the-proper-gps-guidance-system-for-your-operation.html

Not all landowners live near the ground they own and hire farm managers [1] to oversee all aspects of managing the property. Some hire and work with farm managers directly, others go through a management company to keep all parties up to date on the farm’s interests. The manager’s actions can affect long-term sustainable production and future income. Dave Englund is the President and CEO of Farmer’s National Company [2]. He says it’s important that everyone involved communicates on a regular basis. "We might see the farm operator on a daily basis, weekly, or whatever basis. We’ll see them a lot more than what we will sometimes the farmland owner," says Englund. "We sit down and talk with them and a lot of times we even might sit down with the farm owner and the operator and have a discussion on what needs to be done on the property, be it any improvements that need to be done or anything. But, several times a year is very good to do that." Farm owners should be responsible to find managers that represent their interests. This could include monitoring things like soil health, crop production, and conservation stewardship. "You want to make sure that you have a person that can communicate ideas and thoughts both from the operator and the owners so that everybody knows what direction they that all want to go in on the operation of the farm," he says. "You know, you want to have a good agronomic background, things like that, but I would say a good communicator is going to go a long way with keeping everybody informed of what needs to be going on." [1] https://www.farmersnational.com/Farm_and_Ranch_Management/Farm_and_Ranch_Management_Services/Frequently_Asked_Questions/ [2] https://www.farmersnational.com/

Timing the first cutting of alfalfa [1]is both an art and a science. The calendar isn’t a reliable method because weather conditions can vary so much from year-to-year. Harvesting alfalfa should depend on your objectives and the relative feed value you need from it. Bruce Anderson is an Extension forage specialist at the University of Nebraska [2]. He says one way of knowing when to cut is understanding the stages of growth. As alfalfa gets taller, the forage quality changes. "We’ve seen that typically during that first growth of the year, the acid detergent fiber, the neutral detergent fiber, the digestibility of that neutral detergent fiber, they all change by nearly half-a-point per-day during the springtime," says Anderson. "The relative feed value, the RFQ, will often change three or four points per-day as that alfalfa plant gets more mature." Using a PQ stick or the scissors clip method and lab analysis can fine-tune when the alfalfa quality is where you want it to be. Anderson recommends repeating this every two-to-three days. "As we do that, we can see how fast the quality of our alfalfa is changing on a daily basis, and use that rate of change to predict when the alfalfa will be at our desired level in the future," he says. "That way, we can be ready for the harvest." Good timing is critical because relative forage quality can drop 10-to-15-points between cutting and baling time. [1] https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews/2010/05/when-make-first-spring-cut-alfalfa-and-mixed-alfalfagrass [2] https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2017/timing-first-alfalfa-cutting-to-best-fit-your-needs